


Bravery

by Lizzy_Raven



Series: Determination [3]
Category: Naruto, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: BAMF Haku, Bravery, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, it's not necessary to know undertale, no undertale characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-07
Updated: 2016-10-07
Packaged: 2018-08-20 03:31:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8234552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizzy_Raven/pseuds/Lizzy_Raven
Summary: Haku never stops moving. It’s the only way he knows how to survive.





	

**Author's Note:**

> No lie guys, I almost made this chapter Naruto, solely for the ability I could have made for him. However, a compelling counter argument was made, so here we go. I’m getting a more clear idea on who I have planned for future chapters, but still taking arguments. Also, if you have a creative idea on how soul types could manifest, feel free to share!  
> What you need to know from Undertale: there is another game mode where instead of avoiding attacks, the only way to remain unharmed is to be continuously moving. The association with this part of the gameplay is Bravery.

The Land of Water was a dangerous place to be, in the best of times. To be young and orphaned so soon after the bloodline war was practically a death sentence. To have a kekkei genkai so soon after the purges… it was a miracle that Haku was still alive to meet Zabuza.

But before there was snow and starvation and hope, there was a little boy, who lived with his two farmer parents.

Haku, so young, had barely left the farm before. He didn’t know anything besides home, the love he felt for his mother and father, and the love they had for him. On good days, he can’t remember the tears in his father’s eyes as he slaughtered Haku’s mother. On bad days, he can’t remember their names.

(Every day is a bad day).

He remembers their kindnesses, their love. Haku remembers the way his father kissed his mother; gently. Haku remembers the way his mother hugged his father; gently. He remembers the way his father killed his mother; gently. This too, was a kindness.

After his father’s death- _he killed his own father what kind of monster killed their own_ \- Haku was a timid child. If there even was a system to take care of orphans, Haku would have been too scared to try and ask. Because there hadn’t just been Haku’s father, there had been a whole mob of villagers- _dead bodies left to rot at the farm, fathers of the village children, fathers that Haku had murdered_ -

The only option was to run. Far from the farm, the only place he knew. Far from his mother, far from his father, far from the people who knew his face, far from the village that would only ask questions, that would only label him a killer. Haku keeps moving.

Haku was not old enough to remember the rumors of Momochi Zabuza’s graduation, of an academy student who killed without mercy indiscriminately, of a hot day when the mist swelled with the scent and taste of blood.

He was not old enough to know why the Land of Water did not trust children.

He knew the result well enough. He knew the way ribs felt when a finger was run across them. He knew the way kneecaps looked under waxy skin, awkward and lumpy. He knew the way a spine would stick out when shoulders were hunched against the wind. He looked at his hand sometimes, and wondered if the fingers would keep narrowing until they were as sharp as knives.

He had to fight wild dogs for garbage scraps. Later Haku would learn the luxury of being kind to animals. Now was not this time.

And then Zabuza found him. Zabuza might have seen someone who had nothing to lose, but Haku saw a man running. He looked, and found a pair of eyes that would never be at peace.

They had the same eyes.

And Haku has purpose, has strength, has someone who is so strong, Haku doesn’t need to worry about hurting him.

There is still a cost.

Because Haku promised to be a weapon. Promised to use the power he has. Promised to use the ice- _that killed his father, ice and tears, tears and blood, blood and the scent of rotting family_ -

But he promised, so he cools his bleeding heart, and turns his fear into something steadier, something more trustworthy. He fears, and he keeps going. He keeps moving.

Here’s a secret: Haku’s never wanted to kill in his life. He could go forever just wandering, avoiding conflict, making friends instead of enemies. Zabuza says Haku has a soft heart, and he’s right. Haku might have the ability to be a ninja, but he never enjoys the death, the blood, the way Zabuza has. There are two figures walking down a long road. One was born to kill. One was born to die.

But he promised, so Haku kills. He attacks where Zabuza points him, sharp and cold like an icicle, disappearing into nothing. He kills and kills and kills. But he never regrets it, because Zabuza _needs him_ , needs him like no one had ever needed him before, and if Haku likes to pretend that it’s Haku and not the ice that Zabuza needs, well-

No one has to know.

* * *

 

It happens like this:

Haku, still a child, finds benefit in crafting the ice into different shapes. It is frivolous and unnecessary, but the implications for battle and the tiny smile on Haku’s face keep Zabuza quiet, not quite voicing approving, but saying it all the same in his silence.

He freezes raindrops as they drip, cools mist until it falls away. He picks up the black ice from puddles and holds it up like a mirror.

He coats the roof tops and the grass blades with rime.  He steps out onto water, and lets ice spread out like footprints on the sea.

He makes kunai that melt in the hot dark blood from jugulars. He makes senbon thinner than string and stronger than ice picks.

It happens like this:

There is a layer of ice over the pond, and _Haku falls in.  
_

* * *

 

The second time Haku melds with the ice, it’s on purpose. He finds the experience more comfortable when he’s expecting it, but not by very much. Learning how to keep the ice upright in floating sheets was a certainly difficult, but it makes getting in and out of the ice without stumbling and falling on his face infinitely easier.

He presses his face gently into the sheet. Saturated completely with his chakra, it feels more like water than ice. He fits into even the thinnest panes of ice, somehow becoming two dimensional. He doesn’t know how it works, but it does, somehow.

It feels weird, being encased in water completely. Haku’s never been afraid of drowning before, but this feels a bit too much like suffocation to sit right with him.

So Haku keeps moving.

He jumps in and out of the ice, until the soft impression of a brilliant idea begins to make itself know. One ice mirror is great. So why not make more?

The concentration required to keeps the panes in place doubles, but it is so, so worth it. Haku flits out of one sheet of ice, and into the next, barely a flicker to even a highly trained eye.

Haku has never moved so fast in his life. It’s _exhilarating_ , and he never wants to stop moving.

It feels like _his_ , finally like something that doesn’t link him back to his mother’s family. He has no way of knowing if it was something of theirs, of course, but the feeling reassures him. This power is _his_ , this ability is something more than a horrible birthright he never asked for.

It’s useful. _Haku_ is useful.

And so then of course it is time to tell Zabuza, because suddenly this is a weapon.

Under his mask, Zabuza’s face morphs into something not quite a smile, but it’s close enough for Haku, still so terribly young, to preen.

He doesn’t _really_ want to use this new power as a way to kill, but that’s what Zabuza wants, and Haku made a promise, the most important one in his life. Haku is a weapon, does everything for Zabuza, who in turn invests everything in Haku. Every technique Zabuza knows, he’s taught to Haku.

The protégé is devoted to the extreme. Zabuza is everything, is everyone, he is a parent and a teacher and a god in one. Haku isn’t strong because he has his ice. Haku is strong because he has someone to protect, someone to love, someone precious.

When Haku’s graduated to being able to control 5 panels of ice, Zabuza sneaks into Kiri and gets him a forehead protector. Haku, who had never loved Kiri, who had never learned to be loyal to the ninja village, wears it with pride. Zabuza still wears his old forehead protector, unslashed. It means something to Zabuza, and that means everything to Haku.

He sometimes wonders if Zabuza is proud of him.

He doesn’t ask.

* * *

 

Haku is fast, quicker than almost every opponent that he comes across. Amazingly, he turned out to be an incredibly energetic child, always running about. Zabuza was confused, comparing this child full of life to the starving body with dead eyes he met one cold day on a bridge. The energy, the happiness and the absolute adoration are a complete turn from the timid little boy.

But children are strong, children bounce back. Children keep moving despite trauma, despite distaste, despite fear. Haku keeps moving, and Zabuza feels the hints of affection pulling at his hardened heart, feels his eyes soften, feels his lips turn up.

Zabuza calls Haku a weapon, but this comes from someone who cared tenfold more for his sword than any other human being. Haku looks at Kubikiribocho, and thinks that if Zabuza wants to treat him like a weapon, that doesn’t sound so bad.

The mirrors quickly become Haku’s favorite method of fighting, both from the speed it allows him, and the leeway. Senbon were not created to kill, and Haku becomes very good at putting people in near-death states. Zabuza does not approve, but he does not explicitly tell Haku to stop doing it, so Haku only kills when it is completely necessary.

To those stuck surrounded by the ice mirrors, it may seem to them that Haku never moves, that he somehow exists in all the mirrors at the same time. In reality, he jumps between them, too fast to even be seen, never mind caught. Haku never stops moving, and it keeps him alive.

It keeps Zabuza alive, too, on occasion. It scares Haku more than almost anything, that someone could come so close to hurting Zabuza, to killing him. The close call doubles Haku’s resolve to be useful. He will not fail, he will be strong enough, he will be fast enough. As long as he can keep moving, nothing can hurt him.

But during the fight on the bridge, Haku is more afraid than he has been in a while. This job was important to Zabuza, but it wasn’t supposed to be this dangerous. However, abandoning it so early in the game was completely out of the question. They needed Gato’s money, to help fund a second coup in Kiri.

Zabuza, who had never destroyed his forehead protector, stilled cared about his old home, still cared enough to go back, and take down the evil Mizukage.

He had told Haku about it when they took the job from Gato. He told Haku about a ruler who did not rule, a manipulator who hid in the shadows, a people who were terrified of their own kage. Haku knew what fear felt like. He also knew about doing what it took to survive.

This coup, this revolution, it was a dream to Zabuza, and so it meant everything to Haku.

And if that meant working for someone who he despised, someone who belittled Zabuza, someone who made Haku’s skin crawl, well… He had done worse things in the name of survival.

Haku is afraid. But he’s so much more than that.

He doesn’t kill, because his strength allows him the luxury of sparing the children on the bridge. They were likely his own age, but they were children in every way that counted. They hadn’t known death, known grief, known fear, like Haku had.

More than that, he saw a kindred spirit, someone who knew what it was like to be a weapon. All ninjas do. But Uzumaki Naruto knew what it was like to _want_ to be a weapon, to want nothing more and nothing less than to be useful and acknowledged.

So he spares the boys, because he hasn’t forgotten what it was like to be a starving child in the snow, purposeless and useless. Haku now knows what it is like to be needed, and it is wonderful, is magnificent, is _glorious_. Zabuza brought him up from the slums of the Land of Water, and made him into something. And for that, Haku is willing to do anything.

So when the time comes that Zabuza needs him, Haku doesn’t think, doesn’t hesitate.

Haku _moves_.


End file.
